It is well known in the art, and as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,964,258, restaurants, especially fast food restaurants, typically use large quantities of cooking oil and dedicated fryers during the preparation of foods. The cooking oil is typically shipped in containers and stored in a storeroom within the restaurant complex. The cooking oil containers occupy significant amounts of valuable space within the storeroom, and thus will typically reduce potentially available retail space due to a need larger storeroom space. Generally, the containers are manually carried from the storeroom to a fryer vat, where the oil is then poured into the fryer vat. Typically, the containers are not reused, thus adding to waste, another problem seeing a solution in our current environment. The containers are generally hauled away as trash and delivered to a waste disposal facility.
As is typical in the art, the containers of cooking oil are generally 5 gallon jugs or boxes weighing about 35 pounds, with such boxes required to be easily accessible to the kitchen area. As discussed above, storing such containers and having to dispose of them is wasteful. In addition, injury to kitchen staff is a concern when the boxes have to be carried from their storage area to the fryer vats for filling. It is not unusual for kitchen staff to receive burns and injuries resulting when the cooking oil is added to the fryer vat requiring a replenishing of the cooking oil. Handling the cooking oil in this manner also results in oil spills and dangerous walking areas within the kitchen.
It is also well known to have cooking oil systems employing tank storage with the tanks installed on site at the restaurant location, the cooking oil being delivered in bulk using a transport system as described by way of example with reference to U.S. Pat. No. 5,964,258 for a bulk cooking oil supply and delivery. Plumbing lines provide a connection between the storage tanks and the fryers. Such lines are plumbed into the restaurant to relocate the oil from the tanks to the fryers. The oil is sent from the tank to the fryer typically using a pump. While pumps have been used for pumping liquids from storage to user areas, it is also known in the restaurant industry that such pumps used to pump cooking oil from storage tanks to user areas frequently fail causing delay in operation of the restaurant, and an undesirable inefficiency in using the fryer vats. Further, it is appreciated by those of skill in the art that such pumps also require maintenance and power. Typically the bulk oil is delivered to the restaurant in trucks on a regular basis as demanded by use.
Systems are also known that employ pressurized tanks as described in US Patent Application Publication US 2012/0192646 describing a storage tank assembly and system for storing waste cooking oil. Further, the storage tank typically includes level sensing devices such as floats that provide information regarding the level of the cooking oil in the storage tank to the delivery truck so as to indicate when a sufficient amount of cooking oil has been provided to the storage tank. It is well known in the art that such delivery systems can be relatively expensive to install and include many components that result in an additional expense to maintain.